Conservation Of Biodiversity On The Face Of The Growing Threat Of Climate Change

The Giant Panda Bear, or Ailuropoda melanoleuca are mammals with an omnivorous diet. They are considered endangered-only 1,000 are left in the wild. The main cause for this decline is the erosion of habitat by clearing of the forest for crop cultivation. Institutions have been created soley for the purpose of conserving species dying of due to this industry. People around the world are working to study and help protect this majestic species God perfectly

Forests have been cut, crops planted, pastures seeded, and urban areas paved. One of the most troubling consequences of human modification of ecosystems is an ongoing loss of species and therefore a loss of biodiversity around the world. The current extinctions have a human cause: habitat loss (such as clearing of tropical rainforests); the introduction of invasive species; unregulated hunting and fishing; and pollution of water, air, and

Leopold discusses conservation as homo sapien involvement to respect, love, and care for the ecosystem. That we need to step back at certain times to appreciate the environment, but also harvest from the landscape and bear fruit. So conservation involves both human and non human involvement. Understanding this concept further we need to understand how we do not care and respect the environment. We need to learn what our communities problem

The speakers attempt to engage the International Biodiversity Conference to adopt measures to ensure the security of earth’s biodiversity, highlights the grave environmental struggles confronting world leaders. In the persuasive presentation, “Taking stock” which appeals to environmentalist, world leaders and those in attendance of the biodiversity conference, the speaker contends current efforts to secure biodiversity are lacklustre and threatening earth’s future, attempting to garner support for a new wave of environmental action. The images accompanying the presentation support the speakers’ contention by calling to attention that importance of biodiversity.

The Qinling giant pandas are a slowly diminishing species. If left unprotected they will eventually become extinct. Fan, Li, Quan, Wu, Hu, and Yang investigated the effects of road construction on endangered Qinling giant pandas. Road construction can greatly affect the environment. According to the article, the harmful effects of roadway expansion “extend to an area ten times broader than the roadway itself” (Fan et al., 2011, p. 145). It can cause harmful chemicals to contaminate water sources and food supplies. Subsequently, road construction isolates species from one another, and this in turn “blocks gene flow…, which steeply [decreases] genetic diversity” (Fan et al., 2011, p. 145). On the other hand, road networks can isolate these species from their main water source and/or food supply. The giant panda’s only food source is bamboo. Bamboo is a fickle plant that grows in certain habitats, under pristine conditions. Therefore, becoming isolated from bamboo forestry is detrimental to their survival. Researchers investigated the “impact of road construction on giant panda’s habitat and its carrying capacity in the Qinling Mountains” (Fan et al., 2011, p. 145).

Liam Stack recently wrote an article, “ The Panda Is No Longer Endangered. It’s ‘vulnerable’.” He happily informed the readers that the national Chinese symbol, the panda, is no longer in danger. Instead of being on our endangered species list, along with the eastern gorilla, they are now considered, ‘vulnerable’. The I.U.C.N ( The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is responsible for this accomplishment for using forest protection and reforestation. These pandas may be safe for now, but they are worried about the future, since they now struggle with limited resources. They have found a numerous amount of pandas and cubs, but climate change is destroying more than 35 percent of their food. Stabilizing their

The population of giant pandas is decreasing so rapidly that it has reached the point that they are considered an endangered species. These black and white bears reside mainly in China where seventeen percent of the total population of pandas reside. They are habituated in bamboo forests, which are not only the panda 's’ home, but also their main source of food. A panda 's diet consists of ninety percent bamboo and ten percent of mushrooms, insects, fish, plants and other small rodents. These bamboo forests are being taken from them, because the human population is constantly expanding and using their bamboo forests as land for growing crops or to build roads. Combined with the natural dying on bamboo and logging, these defenseless panda bears are forced to seek new areas and see whether or not there is a sufficient amount of bamboo for them to consume, although many of them fail to do so and end up dying of starvation instead. As of today, there are only twenty nine diminished and fragmented areas that have the appropriate habitat to support the remaining panda bears. China’s pandas have been threatened with extinction, suffered from low birth rates, and have been ridiculed by human’s interference with their habitat; now they are faced with another obstacle, starvation.

As much as we as humans try to protect and conserve our planet’s natural resources, there seems to be no going back. We humans have already destroyed our planet. In the article “Conservation in the Anthropocene,” Karieva starts off by saying that “By its own measures, conservation is failing. Biodiversity on Earth continues its rapid decline… Simply put, we are losing many more special places and species than we're saving.” Karieva also defines this time period in which we live, referred to as the Anthropocene as a “new geological era in which humans dominate every flux and cycle of the planet's ecology

Every year in all around the world more and more species of animals became in danger of extinction, with the pass of time their population seem to decrease gradually because of the human manipulation in their habitants, environment, and migratory patterns. One example of this is the Giant panda; this animal is universally admired by its gentle and friendly appealing; including its unique traits. Belonging to the bear family, the giant panda have being drive to the border of extinction by habitat loss. Since Giant Pandas have a specific diet on bamboo, the manipulation of humans in lands can be altering the natural grow

The Giant Panda is currently threatened in a number of ways. The first threats are to their food sources. The Bamboo Rat is a minor, but existent problem that feeds on bamboo roots, killing plants on an individual level ((6)). Bamboo also undergoes phases of growing and then dying as part of the renewal cycle ((7)). This process is not a problem in itself, except for the fact that whereas the pandas might move to a different location to feed, they are running out of places to move because of the expansions of farmland and increased forest clearing ((7)).

Pandas have been on Earth for about two to three million years. They are descendants from their ancestral carnivores; bears, racoons, dogs, and cats. The primal panda, Ailurarctos lufengensis was around about 8 million years ago until went extinct in the late Miocene era. These mammals have not changed since evolution. The earliest pandas were small until 3 million years ago, when larger pandas developed. These mammals have not changed since evolution. The biggest changes they have undertaken have been their habitat and the size of their body. Fossils of the modern Giant Pandas date back to the middle of the Pleistocene era, 600,000 years ago. Pandas adapted to the widespread variety of plant resources in southern Asia. Thus, they lost their carnivorous and omnivorous traits from their ancestors. and the growth of agriculture. During the mid and late Pleistocene era, there were environmental changes. The Qingling Mountains, were pandas inhabited, became frozen, destroying their habitat. Over the past thousand of years, human civilization has caused pandas to live in high mountains. To this day, their unique diet, isolated habitat, and reproductive constraints have closely classified them as extinct. The evolution pandas, human civilization, and environmental changes have caused their population to drop. Until recently, it has been announced Giant Pandas are no longer endangered,

The Red Panda's habitat, mostly Himalayan Forests are being cut down at an alarming rate each year. Usually they are cut down for logging or space to farm. Also, when spaces of forests are cut down that forces Red Panda to separate and mate in the same area which could lower genetic diversity within the red panda species. The destruction of the forests also lead to food shortages which can lead to some pandas’ starvation.

(2015), population of this species is continually on the decline causing it to have an endangered conservation status. There are numerous reasons as to why they are getting closer to extinction. Glaston’s et al. (2015) research shows that one of the biggest issues is the deforestation of the environment they live in. Human population has gradually been spreading to the mountain regions causing forests to be cut down to accommodate living space. Alongside them, herds of cattle raid the forests of bamboo. Bamboo does not easily regrow after damage to the environment. This causes a food shortage among the Red Panda population (Glaston et al. 2015). As humans move into these regions, they also bring domesticated dogs to herd and protect their cattle (Glaston et al. 2015). Living in close proximity is threatening for the Red Panda because they can contract canine distemper from unvaccinated dogs (Glaston et al. 2015). Another reason population is decreasing is because they are being hunted for pet trading purposes (Glaston et al. 2015). Due to the Red Pandas cute appearance, they are being exploited on social media and gaining popularity in Asian countries (Glaston et al. 2015). There’s reports of Chinese newspapers having ads about Red Pandas for sale (Glaston et al. 2015). There are many actions taking place in order to preserve the Red Panda population. Among them are improving the conditions of their environment,

Another potential, but overall less effective, goal for conservation is naturalness, which is also defined differently across the literature. Crumpacker (1998) describes three components of naturalness, two of which the author argues are quantifiable. The first part of naturalness is the degree to which the system would change if humans were removed (Crumpacker 1998). The next two components of naturalness are the amount of cultural energy that is required to maintain the currently existing system and the number of native species that currently live in the system in comparison to the abundance of species that lived in the area prior to European settlement (Crumpacker 1998). Anderson (1991) describes naturalness as a continuum between complete naturalness, which would be an ecosystem virtually unaffected by humans, and complete unnaturalness, which would be an environment that is completely influenced by humans, such as a city. This scale of naturalness is established by assessing the extent to which ecosystems have been modified by humans and how much a damaged ecosystem would recover if humans were removed (Anderson 1991).

The health of the earth degrades with the destructive activity of human beings. A recent study by a group of scientists looked at twenty four different services that the earth’s ecosystems provide for humans, ecosystem services, and found that fifteen of them are in need of desperate help (Gazette 31 March 2005). These services are vital to the survival of both human and nonhuman life and include filtering water and providing nutrient rich soils and ocean waters. Many of the members of these various ecosystems are also decreasing in numbers. In a British survey of bird populations found that in the 200 birds of Britain tracked there was about a 54% population decrease between the 1968-1971 tacking period and the 1988-1991 tacking period. In two other surveys of 254 native plant species from the same area there was a decrease of about 28% during the past 40 years. Humans are pushing the sixth mass extinction (Gazette March 19, 2004).